Junior doctors vote to continue strike action

Junior doctors in England have voted in favour of continuing strike action in their pay dispute.

Some 98% of members of the British Medical Association who voted backed further walkouts on a turnout of 62%.

There have been 10 walkouts so far by junior doctors since the first one in March last year.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has asked for a 35% pay rise, but ministers have described the pay claim as unreasonable.

Two-thirds of junior doctors are members of the BMA.

The vote result means the union has a strike mandate for another six months.

Junior doctors committee co-chairs Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said:   ”It has now been a year since we began strike action.

“That is a year of too many strikes. The government believed it could ignore, delay, and offer excuses long enough that we would simply give up.

“We ask the health secretary to come forward as soon as possible with a new offer – and make sure not a single further strike day need be called,” they said.

Junior doctors received a pay rise averaging nearly 9% this financial year – and during talks at the end of last year, the option of an extra 3% on top of that was discussed.

But those talks ended in early December without a deal being reached.

The BMA is after a 35% pay increase to make up for what it says is 15 years of below-inflation pay rises.

There have been no formal talks since those negotiations ended and the BMA is boycotting the pay review process for next year, refusing to provide evidence to the independent pay review body that makes recommendations on pay rises.

Junior doctors in Wales and Northern Ireland are also involved in strike action.

But consultants in England are voting on whether to accept a revised pay offer from ministers after putting their strike action on pause.

More than 1.4 million operations and appointments in total have been cancelled because of strike action by health workers including doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals since December 2022.

The disputes involving the majority of the other health workers have been resolved.